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Peacekeeping
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Peacekeeping refers to a unique type of military endeavour, first referred
to as such in the latter half of the 20th Century. Some historians have
traced the roots of peacekeeping to the 5th Century BC, when Greek city
states of the Delian League banded forces together to jointly police the
Aegean Sea. Similar concepts can be seen in medieval times when the
Vatican sought to impose the "Truce of God". Ideas, rather than actions,
were put forward in the 1700s as well. |
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The
clearest precedent for present-day peacekeeping, however, probably lies
in the arrangements the defunct League of Nations made to monitor the
plebiscite that returned the Saar to Germany in 1935. Some 3,200 troops
from Britain, Italy, Sweden and the Netherlands, together with a police
contingent, were sent in under the command of a British general - but
wearing their normal uniforms - to preserve law and order while the
citizens of the Saar determined their future. Though the word
peacekeeping was not yet in vogue, the force was described as "a peace
force, not a fighting force," and was ordered to exercise strict
impartiality. As with modern-day peacekeeping operations, the soldiers
sought to avoid force, cooperated closely with the civilian authorities,
and relied on high-visibility patrolling to maintain order.1
Early missions
were observer missions; the first true peacekeeping mission was the United
Nations Emergency Force established in 1956. This mission had a lasting
impact on Canadian history, according to Dr. Jack Granatstein:
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Pearson's
Nobel Prize (awarded for his role in creating the force) made Canadians
into the world's leading believers in peacekeeping. Every world crisis
after 1956 saw Canadians demanding that their troops bring peace to the
world. This pressure literally forced the Diefenbaker government to send
peacekeepers to Lebanon in 1958 and to the Congo in 1960-1964. Second,
Egyptian complaints about the Queen's Own Rifles marked the first time
that many Canadians realized that the army's British-pattern uniforms
and regimental names might send an unintended message. The seeds of the
unification of the armed forces and a distinctive Canadian military
uniform may have been sown in November 1956. Finally, Pearson's interest
in a distinctive Canadian flag, one without a Union Jack, began to grow.
Suez was part of Canada's belated coming of age.2
From 1947 to
the 1990s, Canada could claim to have participated in every single major
international peace support mission. The list below will show that the
number of missions increased dramatically in the 1990s and the pace could
not be maintained. A DND document published in Apr 1998 entitled Canada's
Army: We Stand on Guard for Thee described the Army's own vision of
itself:
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The fall
of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 and the collapse of the Soviet Union
in December 1991, coupled with the pressing requirement to bring under
control an ever-increasing national debt, resulted in a shift in
national priorities for Canadians. Although planned allocations for
defence were drastically cut and Canadian Forces in Germany withdrawn,
the number and scale of Canadian Forces operations actually intensified.
This was in large measure due to increasing conflict and instability in
various parts of the world which resulted in the army being committed to
a number of new international peace support operations. Although Canada
ended its long standing UN battalion commitment to Cyprus in 1993, new
and more demanding missions quickly replaced it. Thus, despite
diminishing resources, Canadian soldiers found themselves serving in
Somalia, Cambodia, Afghanistan, former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Haiti and a
number of other areas of conflict. At one point, over 2,200 Canadian
soldiers out of a regular army establishment of 20,000 were deployed on
UN operations, with some soldiers completing one mission only
immediately to begin another. At the same time, the army became a force
of "veterans," a large proportion of soldiers witnessing combat
firsthand in Bosnia, and on a scale unknown to the army since the Korean
War.3
According to
Dr. Granatstein, when the Cold War ended and multiple conflicts began to
wage in Eastern Europe, "the peacekeeping industry was the only growth
sector in (the Canadian Forces') small and declining economy." The Army
itself has maintained that its raison d'etre has not been for peace
missions, but for war training.
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Early
Canadian advocates of peacekeeping...neglected the fact that the armed
forces, and especially the army leadership, disliked the duty. Manpower
was always scarce, as far as the army was concerned, and peacekeeping
took trained soldiers and softened them up with doing good. The army's
main task, as its leaders saw it, was to be prepared to fight the Soviet
Union in Central Europe. Its training and its doctrine all looked to
that future war. Peacekeeping was a distraction, plain and simple. This
view might have been, and likely was, shortsighted for the army
leadership, but it existed.4
Peacekeeping
was not only done under the auspices of the United Nations, and Canada
performed peacekeeping missions under the direction of other coalitions or
alliances such as NATO; they are described in the article on International
Missions.
United Nations
Peacekeeping and Observer Missions of the 20th Century
- Peacekeeping
|
#
|
Designation |
Title
|
Dates
|
Canadian
Participation |
|
1
|
INTERFET
|
International Force in East Timor (Provided assistance to the United
Nations Mission in East Timor (UNAMET), which Canada provided 3
police officers and 26 election specialists to.) |
1999-2000
|
Operation
TOUCAN: 1 reinforced infantry company, two transport aircraft, 1
supply ship. Peak strength 650 CF personnel. |
|
2
|
MINURCA
|
United
Nations Mission in the Central African Republic |
1998–2000
|
Peak of
over 80 CF personnel. |
|
3
|
MINURSO
|
United
Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara |
1991-
|
Operation
PYTHON, a maximum of 35 CF personnel from May 1991-Jun 1994.
|
|
4
|
MIPONUH
|
United
Nations Civilian Police Mission in Haiti |
1997–2000
|
Operation
COMPLIMENT - six Bisons, plus driving instructors, vehicle techs,
military police and staff officers. |
|
5
|
ONUC
|
United
Nations Operation in the Congo |
1960-1964
|
Approx
300 servicemen at a time, 1,900 total. |
|
6
|
UNAMSIL
|
United
Nations Mission in Sierra Leone |
1999–2005
|
Operation
REPTILE (originally 5 observers from Nov 1999). |
|
7
|
UNCRO
|
United
Nations Confidence Restoration Operation |
1994–1996
|
|
|
8
|
UNDOF
|
United
Nations Disengagement Observer Force (Israel/Syria) |
1974-
|
Operation
DANACA. |
|
9
|
UNEF I,
UNEFME (aka UNEF II) |
United
Nations Emergency Force and United Nations Emergency Force, Middle
East |
1956-67
and 1973-1979 |
Up to
1,007 personnel during UNEF, 1,145 during UNEFME. |
|
10
|
UNFICYP
|
United
Nations Forces in Cyprus |
1964-
|
Operation
SNOWGOOSE, approximately 500+ personnel at any time from 1964-1993,
staff officers thereafter. |
|
11
|
UNIFIL
|
United
Nations Interim Force in Lebanon |
1978
|
110+
(mainly signals) personnel. |
|
12
|
UNMIBH
|
United
Nations Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina |
1995–2000
|
2 CF
personnel. |
|
13
|
UNMIH
|
United
Nations Mission in Haiti |
1993–1996
|
Up to 500
CF personnel and 100 civilian police. |
|
14
|
UNMIK
|
United
Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo |
1999-2002
|
Operation
QUADRANT. Individual CF officers tasked. |
|
15
|
UNPREDEP
|
United
Nations Preventive Deployment Force |
1995–1999
|
1
observer. |
|
16
|
UNPROFOR
|
United
Nations Protection Force (Croatia) |
1992-1995
|
Operation
HARMONY, peak of approximately 1,600 CF personnel. |
|
17
|
UNPSG
|
United
Nations Civilian Police Support Group |
1998
|
None.
|
|
18
|
UNSMIH
|
United
Nations Support Mission in Haiti |
1996–1997
|
Operations STANDARD and STABLE, up to 750 CF personnel. |
|
19
|
UNTAC
|
United
Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia |
1992-1993
|
Operations MARQUIS 1 and MARQUIS 2. Peak of 215 CF personnel.
|
|
20
|
UNTAES
|
United
Nations Transitional Authority in Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and
Western Sirmium |
1996–1998
|
None.
|
|
21
|
UNTAET
|
United
Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor |
2000
|
Operation
TOUCAN - reinforced infantry company from INTERFET. |
|
22
|
UNTAG
|
United
Nations Transition Assistance Group (Namibia) |
1989-1990
|
Operation
MATADOR, 300 CF personnel and 100 RCMP. |
|
23
|
UNTEA/UNSF
|
United
Nations Temporary Executive Authority/United Nations Security Force
(West New Guinea, Indonesia) |
1962-1963
|
Two
aircraft, one observer. |
|
24
|
UNTMIH
|
United
Nations Transition Mission in Haiti |
1997
|
Operation
CONSTABLE, up to 650 personnel. |
- Observer Missions
|
#
|
Designation |
Title
|
Dates
|
Canadian
Participation |
|
1
|
DOMREP
|
Mission
in the Dominican Republic |
1965-1966
|
1
observer. |
|
2
|
MINUGUA
|
United
Nations Verification Mission in Guatemala |
1997
|
Operation
VISION (15 observers plus civilian police). |
|
3
|
MONUA
|
United
Nations Observer Mission in Angola |
1997–1999
|
None.
|
|
4
|
ONUCA
|
United
Nations Observer Group in Central America |
1989-1992
|
Operation
SULTAN - 8 helicopters up to 174 personnel. |
|
5
|
ONUMOZ
|
United
Nations Operation in Mozambique |
1992–1994
|
Operation
CONSONANCE - up to 4 observers in 1993-94. |
|
6
|
ONUSAL
|
United
Nations Observer Mission In El Salvador |
1991-
|
Up to 55
CF personnel in phase I (Operation MATCH), 11 observers in phase II
to Aug 1994. |
|
7
|
UNAMIC
|
United
Nations Advance Mission in Cambodia |
1991-1992
|
Up to 7
observers. |
|
8
|
UNAVEM I,
II, III |
United
Nations Angola Verification Mission |
1989-1991
and 1991-1995 and 1995-1997 |
UNAVEM I
and III - none.
UNAVEM II - 15 observers (Operation PASTEL). |
|
9
|
UNCI
|
United
Nations Commission for Indonesia (originally called Committee of
Good Offices 1947-1948) |
1947-1951
|
None.
|
|
10
|
UNGOMAP
|
United
Nations Good Offices Mission in Afghanistan and Pakistan
|
1988-1990
|
5
observers |
|
11
|
UNIIMOG
|
United
Nations Iran-Iraq Military Observer Group |
1988-1991
|
Operation
VAGABOND, up to 525 personnel. |
|
12
|
UNIKOM
|
United
Nations Iraq-Kuwait Observer Mission |
1991-2003
|
523
engineer personnel in total 1991-1993 |
|
13
|
UNIPOM
|
United
Nations India-Pakistan Observer Mission |
1965-66
|
6
aircraft |
|
14
|
UNMOGIP
|
United
Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan |
1949-
|
Up to 39
military observers at any time 1949-1979. Also aircraft support
until 1996. |
|
15
|
UNMOP
|
United
Nations Mission of Observers in Prevlaka |
1996–2002
|
Operation
CHAPERON (1 CF officer assigned until end of Sep 2001). |
|
16
|
UNMOT
|
United
Nations Mission of Observers in Tajikistan |
1994–2000
|
None.
|
|
17
|
UNOGIL
|
United
Nations Observer Group in Lebanon |
1958
|
77
individuals. |
|
18
|
UNOMIG
|
United
Nations Observer Mission in Georgia |
1993-
|
None.
|
|
19
|
UNOMSIL
|
United
Nations Observer Mission in Sierra Leone |
1998–1999
|
None.
|
|
20
|
UNAMIR
|
United
Nations Assistance Mission in Rwanda |
1993–1996
|
Up to 112
CF personnel at any one time. |
|
21
|
UNASOG
|
United
Nations Aouzou Strip Observer Group |
1994
|
None.
|
|
22
|
UNOMIL
|
United
Nations Observer Mission in Liberia |
1993–1997
|
1 retired
BGen participated in technical recce of mission, otherwise None.
|
|
23
|
UNOMUR
|
United
Nations Observer Mission Uganda-Rwanda |
1993–1994
|
3
observers. |
|
24
|
UNOSOM I,
II |
United
Nations Operation in Somalia |
1992-1993
and 1993–1995 |
UNOSOM I:
Operation CORDON, advance party and headquarters staff.
UNOSOM
II: Operation CONSORT, up to 9 CF members including headquarters
staff and officers, until 1994. |
|
25
|
UNSCOB
|
United
Nations Commission for the Balkans |
1947-1952
|
None.
|
|
26
|
UNTSO
|
United
Nations Truce Supervisory Organization (Middle East) |
1948-
|
20
officers (13 officers from 1993). |
|
27
|
UNYOM
|
United
Nations Yemen Observation Mission |
1963-1964
|
4
aircraft. |
Timeline of
20th Century Peacekeeping Missions with Canadian Participation
Notes
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Lewis, Paul.
"A Short History of United Nations Peacekeeping" Military History
Quarterly Volume 5, Number 1 (Military History Quarterly, Inc., New
York, NY, 1992) p.35
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Granatstein,
Jack Canada's Army: Waging War and Keeping the Peace (University of
Toronto Press, Toronto, ON, 2002) ISBN 0802046916 p.347
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Canada's
Army: We Stand on Guard for Thee Department of National Defence
publication B-GL-300-000/FP-000 pp.25-26
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Granatstein,
Ibid, p.392
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